She’s completely guarded and unself-aware - until she meets a classmate during an after-school self-pity party at the local juvie hangout, a London canal. She doesn’t take pride in, or play up, her appearance, choosing instead to make herself as unappealing and unlikely to get emotionally hurt as possible. She degrades and distrusts anyone of authority.

Angry at the world and everyone in it, Jem lashes out at her teachers, her foster mother - anyone who tries to help or befriend her. Ward does an excellent job of tapping the psyche of a teen who’s victim to such grim knowledge. Now Jem, who was the product of a one-night “toss” by her junkie “mum,” avoids making friends and otherwise getting close to people. The first number she saw was that of her mother, who died on cue from a heroin addiction, revealing to Jem what the numbers she was seeing really meant. This burden of a “gift” is the intriguing premise of an action-packed, emotional roller coaster of a debut young adult novel from British author Rachel Ward.įifteen-year-old Jem has been able to see these numbers as if “they were stamped on the inside of my skull” since she was a child, she says early on. Rowling, one would think that the permutations of psychic abilities had been exhausted.Įnter “Numbers,” about a teenage girl in England’s foster care system who is able to see people’s death dates when she looks into their eyes.

Employed by the likes of William Shakespeare, J.R.R. Whether it’s telekinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, magic or ESP, otherworldly powers have long captivated young readers, empowering them, through fantasy, to believe that anything is possible.

Chicken House/Scholastic: 328 pp., $17.99

Numbers by rachel ward